Modal Competition and Complementarity: Cost Optimization at End-User Level

The paper aims to identify possible methods for balancing the allocation of transport flow on modal subsystems in order to efficiently use the infrastructures and reduce the negative effects of today’s unbalance. The aspects of intermodal competition are reviewed, considering the economic concepts regarding the substitutability of transportation services, conformation degree to the perfect competition model and the nature of cross elasticity demand. A top-down analysis over the whole infrastructure assembly is performed. The results, under the presumption of valid work hypothesis, indicated that for further analysis the set of networks transferring material flows can be assumed as disconnected from the other networks sets transferring energy, informational and values flows. The second part of the paper develops, for that disconnected networks, a generalized cost optimization model for multimodal transportation, where the comfort and safety are accounted. Thus, the performance of the existing algorithms based only on trip length, trip duration and energy consumption can be significantly improved. Additionally, the author proposes three new independent types of modal analysis that allow end-users and companies involved in transport organization to optimize their modal choice and the whole transport process organization.

Regulations in Scheduled Intercity Coach Transport Sector in Turkey

<p>The most common mode of intercity passenger transportation in Turkey is coach transport. This study focuses on regulations adopted in 2003 on scheduled intercity coach market and the consequences of these regulations, and offers several insights on the future of the sector. Due to regulations adopted and increased intermodal competition, the number of companies in the market has dropped to a certain extent. It is predicted that intermodal competition will increase further in the coming years, leading to a further decline in the number of companies, which will in turn intensify collaboration among companies. In a nutshell, the lessons to be taken from the Turkish experiment can be summarized as follows: It is possible to carry out intercity transportation unsubsidized. Having a free transportation market is key to the development of the market. Intermodal and potential competition is crucial for passenger transportation.</p>

Intrarailroad and Intermodal Competition Impacts on Railroad Wheat Rates

The issue addressed in this paper is more fully understanding the relationship of intrarailroad competition and rail rates for wheat in the largest wheat producing states, which are Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Washington. The overall objective of the study is to investigate railroad pricing behavior for wheat shipments. The rate model was estimated with OLS in double-log specification utilizing the 2012 STB Confidential Waybill sample and other data.The research found that the distance from origin to destination and the total shipment weight had the expected negative relationships with railroad wheat rates and were statistically significant. The distance from origin to the nearest barge loading location had the expected positive relationship to railroad wheat rates and was also significant. The weight of each covered hopper car and the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index were both non-significant. However, the study used other data to determine that intrarailroad competition for wheat shipments within states appears to be present in most states.